I did a happy dance.

Hola Amigos!

This week was neat! We are helping a family prepare to be baptized on April 22, and they are pretty cute. If they keep reading the scriptures, praying, attending church, and applying what they learn, they should be ready!

We helped set up a birthday party for a one year old. It was pretty grand, and I was impressed. We were even invited to eat tacos with the family! 

General Women's conference happened this week which means this weekend will be General Conference! At conference, we have the opportunity to listen to church leaders, including the prophet, speak to us. I love that the church is organized like Christ's church which He established when He was on the earth. The truth has definitely been restored. 

We happened to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner one night, and the waiter was super helpful. He even taught us how to eat the food we ordered. He came back to check on us at one point and asked if we were missionaries. He loves the missionaries! We invited him to the Easter pageant that is coming up, and I really hope he comes.

Sister Cossey and I were able to call almost all of the phone numbers we have of people who have told missionaries in this area that they would like to learn more. One lady, Mary, told us that she still wants to join the church and would like for us to come by! We are too excited to teach her and her husband! Fun fact: we've talked to her husband several times while he walked his dog. When we realized that they are married, I did a happy dance. She even called us a few minutes ago to confirm that we are coming by tomorrow.

Hasta Luego!

Hermana Valentine

"How can the ward help you, Ricardo?"

Hola Amigos!

Today I hiked half of a mountain and almost died, so I went back down
with another sister who almost died. I'll attach pictures of that
adventure. It wasn't super bad after the sun came up, but when I
couldn't see anything, it was scary.

Ricardo was baptized! He is awesome. After explaining to me how
nervous and scared he was for his baptism, he told me he was just
kidding and that he was super excited. Bishop shared a story about
Ricardo coming into his office one day. Bishop asked, "How can the
ward help you, Ricardo?" He put his hand on the scriptures and said,
"This is how you can help me. This is all I need." He's wonderful and
is an excellent example for members! The gospel is what we need.
Christ is who we need.

Ricardo's baptism was the best birthday party. Presidente and Hermana
Azua found out it was birthday and gave me a cake and gift for me to
take home after Ricardo's baptism.

Hasta Luego!
Hermana Valentine
1. Hno Miranda, Ricardo, Hna Rivera, Hna Fairbourne, and Hna Valentine.
2. It was too dark to see anything!
3. We were so cool on the hike. A 60 something year old man in a polo
passed us going up and passed us going down.

I can hardly believe it! Laney's Birthday!!!!

It's Laney's Birthday on the 19th - make sure to send her a note!

Sister Laney Chelsea Valentine

Arizona Scottsdale Mission

6265 N 82nd St

Scottsdale, AZ 85250

United States

Hola Amigos!

This week went by so quickly! Ah! I just barely hit 13 months, and I can hardly believe it!

On Thursday, I had a neat experience that reminded me of the importance of acting on the tiniest nudges from the Spirit. Sometimes we meet people who want to learn more about the gospel at dinky looking gas stations. I'm glad we went to a gas station we normally don't go to.

Mario is getting baptized! He's 11 years old His parents aren't super interested, so we are waiting until May 12. We plan to move the date closer if the parents are ok with it. He is too cute. Before church started, he text us two or three times asking when his ride would be there. He made us nervous, and I had to call his ride to make sure they remembered. He loved church, and he answered questions during class about prophets!
Ricardo is also getting baptized! His baptism is on Saturday, and I heard that he is stoked. He reads the Book of Mormon like crazy and loves the stories. Hopefully, he will be a good example for his family and friends. I might even get to go to his baptism on Saturday! If not, I'll rely on Sister Fairbourne to get good pictures!
1.Sometimes there are mission memes, and you are in one of them. Or several.
2.Nerito told us that we had to wear hats while at his house.
3.Zone conference!

I knocked on the screen, I softly yelled inside, I knocked on the window...nothing!

Hola Amigos!

This transfer my goal is clean up this area! There are loads of people
who have given missionaries their information, expecting missionaries
to come back by, but they haven't been contacted since then! The list
is getting smaller everyday, but it's still pretty long.

We were looking for a lady named Christine in an apartment complex,
but we couldn't find her apartment. We finally found it, but no one
would answer the door even though it was open! I knocked on the
screen, I softly yelled inside, I knocked on the window...nothing! I
don't give up so easily, so I went next door, asking for the neighbor.
We found out that she moved, but the person we were talking to had
been baptized when she was younger! She said she hadn't been to church
since she was 18 or 19. She was super nice and taught us how to make
fry bread! Her family is moving on Friday, but she wants the
missionaries to visit them.

We are teaching a boy named Mario who is fantastic! He is reading the
Book of Mormon, paying attention in lessons, praying sincerely... He's
just great. His parents are ok with us teaching him, and this last
lesson, his mom came out towards the end. Mario retaught the whole
lesson to her, and she agreed to learn more!

Our car window stopped working one day: it wouldn't role up. That
means Sister Cossey had to drive a truck around.

This week has been fun!

Hasta Luego!

Hermana Valentine

1. Sister Cossey driving a truck for the first time in her life! I was
a little scared, but she was thrilled.

Someone thought I was from Spain. How fancy is that?

Hola Amigos!

This week flew by! Transfers happened. A super long meeting happened.

We were visited by Brother Gonzalez and Brother Cates who trained us
on the basics of missionary work: planning. It was a long, detailed
meeting on how to plan effectively, find, teach the doctrine of
Christ, and baptize converts. Something I really liked was the
application of vision-goals-plans type of planning. We typically
follow that pattern when helping bishops create ward mission plans,
but it works well when planning, too.

My new little trainee is ready to do work! It's refreshing to be in a
new area with new people, and I'm excited to see how the rest of the
transfer goes!

Some fun things happened this week:

Someone thought I was from Spain. How fancy is that?

Someone else thought I was from Italy. I think that was mostly because
of the name, but she said that people from Italy speak Spanish the way
I do. Weird.

We are teaching a family who has been reading the Book of Mormon, but
they haven't accepted a baptismal date. We asked them if they have
even prayed about the Book of Mormon, but they said no! So we set them
straight, and tomorrow we will see how their prayers went. I know that
if do the basics, reading and asking if the book is true with the
intention of acting on that answer, they will receive an answer.

One lady answered the door, stared at us, and closed the door.

Someone invited us the the fish fry at a Catholic Church.

Hasta luego!

Hermana Valentine